Saute of Chicken, Corn & Snow Peas

Madison & I both do not like baby corn, so we omitted it. This is from my low fat cookbook again. It was really good! I would have added garlic and maybe a little bit more sauce, but other than that it was great!
I halved the recipe and it was just a bit more than we could eat.

INGREDIENTS:
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts
9 oz baby corn
9 oz snow peas (I just had a bag of them from the other day, I think I used more than it called for but it was good!)
2 T sunflower oil
1 T honey
1 T sherry vinegar
1 T light soy sauce
1 T sunflower seeds
pepper
rice or egg noodles to serve


1. Using a sharp knife, slice the chicken breasts into long, thin strips. Cut the baby corn in half lengthwise, and trim the snow peas. Set veggies aside until required.
2. Heat sunflower oil in a wok or wide skillet, and cook the chicken over a fairly high heat, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
3. Add corn and snow peas and stir over moderate heat for 5-8 minutes, or until evenly cooked.
4. Mix together the sherry vinegar, honey, and soy sauce, and stir into the skillet with sunflower seeds. Season with pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Serve the saute hot with rice or egg noodles.

Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Serves 4
Prep: 5-10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Cook's tip: Rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar makes a good substitute for the sherry vinegar used in this saute.

Delicious Salad

Crunchy Romaine Salad (our favorite salad!)

SERVES 4 -6
Dressing
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Salad

1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles – do not boil
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 bunch broccoli, coarsely chopped
1 head romaine lettuce
2 cups fresh strawberries
(I also add a small amount of feta cheese)
For dressing combine all ingredients in an air-tight container and shake.
Break Ramen noodles into small pieces, discarding the flavor packet. Brown the noodles and pecans in the butter in a skillet.
Drain on paper towels and cool.
Combine the noodles, pecans, broccoli, romaine and green onions in a salad bowl and mix gently.
Add dressing to coat.

Pad Thai

Even if you're not incredibly adventurous, you really should try this pad thai. It is SO good! I love it. I make it every so often. This is day 1 of our diet. I planned all of our meals out of my diet cookbooks (I have low fat cookbooks, etc.). This one is from my sister. It is really good and under 300 calories per serving. Even Madison loved it! I highly recommend it.
A hint: do all prep work before you cook everything in your wok or skillet...otherwise you will be stressed, trying to do stuff while things are cooking. Get lots of bowls out and prep everything ahead of time and place in the different bowls. I have little silicone prep bowls, but even cereal or small mixing bowls work well.

All these ingredients were at Kroger - I found most ingredients at Dominick's and Whole Foods when I lived in Wheaton. I know Wal Mart wouldn't have everything, but just about any grocery store will. It may sound gross, but I promise it is good :-)

Yield: 4 servings
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2 quarts water
3/4 lb. mung bean sprouts
6 oz Rice noodles
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Sauce:

3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons katsup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce or fish sauce (I use soy sauce...)
----
3 tablespoons Peanut oil or vegetable oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (or 2 teaspoons minced garlic)
1 tablespoon fresh chile (I used a jalepeno pepper) or 1 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups carrots; grated (I use a food processor grater, but you can grate w/ a cheese grater)
4 large eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt
2/3 cup peanuts, chopped
6-8 scallions; chopped (about 1 cup)

In a covered pot, bring the water to a rolling boil.  Blanch the mung bean sprouts by placing them
in a strainer or small colander and dipping it into the boiling water for 30 seconds.
Set aside to drain well. When the water returns to a boil, stir in the rice noodles and cook for 3 to 5 minutes,
until tender but firm. These noodles stick easily, so stir often and put salt in the pot.
Drain the cooked noodles, rinse them under cool water, and set them aside to drain.       
Prepare the remaining ingredients and have them near at hand before you begin to stir-fry.
Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet.  Add the garlic and chile, swirl them in the oil for a moment, and stir in 
the grated carrots.  Stir-fry for 1 minute.  Push the carrots to the sides to make a hollow in the center.  Pour the
beaten eggs into the center and quickly scramble them.  When the eggs have just set, pour in the sauce mixture
and stir everything together.  Add the drained rice noodles and mung sprouts, and toss to distribute evenly.
Stir in the peanuts and scallions, and serve at once. Enjoy!!

Grating the carrots
 Patting the carrots dry:


Adding garlic & chile with oil in wok



Boiling the noodles:

Adding everything to the wok:

Crock Pot Pot Roast

I never ever have made pot roast, and I don't cook with beef much...so this was a new experience for me! This will definitely be a recipe I keep and use on occasion. It had a lot of flavor (I don't really like the taste of plain beef without lots of spices, etc.). This recipe is from my friend Jordan - she's a great cook and has a lot of great recipes on her blog. It's also incredibly easy - you just throw it in the crock pot before you leave for work, and dinner is ready when you get home!

Jordan's Crock Pot Pot Roast

INGREDIENTS
2lbs Stew Meat
4 Carrots, chopped into big pieces
2 Stalks of Celery, also chopped
12 Small Potatoes (white or red)
1 Medium White Onion (I used small boiling onions, whole)
1C Water
1t Worcestershire sauce
2 Cloves garlic, whole
1/2T Oregano
1 Bay leaf
3/4T Salt
1/2T Black Pepper
1/2t Paprika

DIRECTIONS
Put everything into crock pot, stir just enough to mix spices. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high 4 to 6 hours. Serve with homemade biscuits and you’ve got a warm and comforting meal.

Spinach Stuffed Chicken

It was funny, I went online to find a recipe that I could use a half of a bag of fresh spinach, some bacon, chicken, and sour cream (because these were all things I had to buy for our get-togethers this weekend) and I found this amazing recipe! I will definitely be making this again.

(note: this is not the halved recipe - we halved it and it still was too much!)
INGREDIENTS:
1 (10 oz) package fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup lowfat or regular sour cream
1/2 cup shredded mozzerella
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 pinch chili pepper
8 strips turkey bacon or regular bacon (uncooked)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2. Place spinach in a large glass bowl, and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every minute or so, or until wilted.

3. Stir in sour cream, cheese, garlic, black pepper, and chili powder.


4. Pound chicken breasts to 1/2 inch thickness. (I put saran wrap on the chicken so the gross chicken juice doesn't spray everywhere!)



5. Lay the chicken breasts out on a clean surface, and spoon some of the spinach mixture onto each one.


6. Roll up chicken to enclose the spinach, then wrap each chicken breast with two slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, and arrange in a shallow baking dish. (I did not have toothpicks, hence the crazy skewer sticks!)


7. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, then increase heat to 500 degrees F, or use the oven's broiler to cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to brown the bacon.



I took the bacon off (we are watching our fat intake) but it didn't necessarily say that you can't eat it. I also only like extra crispy bacon. It keeps the chicken nice & moist, and gives it just the slightest hint of bacon taste. mm!
I highly recommend this recipe! We were going to make it this weekend as a special treat, then we realized we were busy all weekend, so I decided to make it tonight. It's relatively low-fat and really tasty!

Chicken Tortellini

Chicken Tortellini

Yum! This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law.
It is REALLY good. The spinach I put in is probably way more than called for, but we both love spinach, haha!

Chicken Tortellini

3 cups cooked, chopped chicken breasts
2 peeled, cubed Granny Smith apples
4 minced green onions
1/2 c mayo (I used lowfat - that's what I had in the fridge & it turned out great)
1 9 ounce package of cheese stuffed tortellini
1 bunch of fresh spinach, washed and torn
1/2 sunflower seeds
1 8 oz. bottle Italian salad dressing

Mix chicken, apples, green onions and miracle whip or mayo and let stand in fridge overnight. Cook cheese tortellini according to package directions. Combine tortellini with chicken mixture, add spinach and sunflower seeds and toss with salad dressing. Enjoy!

Apple Pie Filling

Apple pie filling:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups peeled & sliced tart apples (8 medium sized apples)
2 T butter (I don't use it, but that's what the recipe calls for)

In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir in apples until well mixed. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling.

Then follow directions on whatever pie crust you are using.
Here's pictures from the pie I made:

Amazing Blueberry Muffins - my dad's recipe

Steve's Blueberry Muffins
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 TBS of finely grated lemon peel
1 egg
1 cup fresh blueberries

Crumble:
½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup butter, cubed
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins with Crisco or line with muffin liners. Combine 1 ½ cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, salt, lemon peel, and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture. Mix the crumble ingredients with a fork before sprinkling on top of muffin mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins. Yield: 12 muffins